tarheelnj

Flying CO 1298 EWR-STL tomorrow. First day this flight is operating. Flight number makes it look like a CO mainline flight. Except it's really UAEX 4723 on their E70 with 6 FC seats. Checking flight status by route (EWR-STL) doesn't show the flight, but checking by flight number does. OLCI is still through CO, but flight will leave out of UA Terminal A gates.

I spoke with a PPlat CO rep who wasn't able to pull up the flight status as a CO flight, only as a UA flight. She said that starting tomorrow there will be a new series of flights in the 1200-1299 range that are CO flights on UAEX metal (e.g. 1288 EWR-DTW, 1289 EWR-IND). To make it more confusing on my itinerary, the return flight from STL to EWR later this week at 4:00pm has the same flight number (1298).

She also said CO Elites can only upgrade these flights at the airport (still batting 0.00 on EUA's since PPlat). I don't fly UA so don't know if that's the same policy as UA mainline. So may or may not get to try one of these FC seats.

Now for the dumb question - If CO and UA flights are in the process of consolidating flights across their networks, what possible reason would there be for creating a new series of confusing code share flights? (I am happy though to be on the E70 rather than the CO E45.)

GeoMedic

The CO website speaks to this range of flight numbers...
"United Continental Holdings is removing the Continental code on certain United Express flights. Although we disagree with the arbitrator's ruling that has required us to take this action, we will comply with it. We are pleased that this decision will permit the company to redeploy 70-seat aircraft in certain markets under the United Express brand to better meet demand and improve profitability of the combined company. Due to this change, flight numbers between CO* 1100-1299 will no longer be available in our flight search results. United Express will operate these flights with the UA code until further notice."

One should be able to upgrade on these as normal, but remember, they are having to fiddle with the junk behind the scenes and priority isn't upgrades.

tarheelnj

This is a little confusing. I found this flight and booked it through my company's travel booking site, but when I just tried to book it on CO's site it doesn't come up. What is the arbitration this article is referring to and where do I find it on the CO site?

MBM3

Last week UACO lost the ability to place Continental flights numbers on E170 flights operated by United Express. As such, they are scrambling to remove the CO/CoEx flight numbers from the system and, IIRC, reassign the scheduled aircraft. These flights were bookable until last week and I am sure CO and/or your travel agent will let you know what shakes out.

controller1

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...al-pilots.html

cjgibson

I'm on CO 1294 RDU-EWR tomorrow evening (really UA 4727). It'll be interesting to see what happens!

tarheelnj

I can't believe it! I got an EUA notice 10 minutes before T-24 (on a "W" fare!). OLCI went fine without a hitch (I got the single seat 2A, which is supposed to be a great FC seat on the R70.) Boarding pass printed ok and looks like a normal CO BP, with the notation that the flight is operated by Shuttle America dba United Express.

(Hard not to be excited when my EUA % as a PPlat so far has been 0%.)

The only strange thing is that the Flight Status page doesn't show the standby upgrade tab, so I can't tell who else got upgraded or if there is a standby list.

Hartmann

If UA has the monitors at EWR (I think they do), you'll be able to see the folks upgraded on it.

UA-NYC

Enjoy - 2A on the E70 is probably my single favorite non-int'l, non-PS F seat. 1A is great too but doesn't have underseat storage.

NCommander

Enjoy. 2A is a great seat on the E70s. Its the one I always try and snag on successful EUA on HPN-ORD.

tarheelnj

Thanks. Based on the details in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...al-pilots.html (post #5 in this thread), this flight won't be around very long, at least not as a CO flight.

cjgibson

UPDATE:

The E170 flights to/from EWR tomorrow now have gate assignments. They're all scheduled to arrive/depart from the A2 banjo, the same gates as ExpressJet. Also pda site and co.com both say "operated by ExpressJet Airlines" for these flights, although the seat map is still that of an E170 and the check-in site says "operated by Shuttle America".

Another interesting note: CO 1294 (UA 4727) is scheduled to depart RDU from gate A19, which is a CO gate. UA uses gates in the new Terminal 2 at RDU.

Finally: The pda site and co.com show that the aircraft for all of the 12xx flights tomorrow is "aircraft #50". No aircraft type or "where's this coming from", just aircraft #50.

Stay tuned...

tarheelnj

Same situation on my EWR-STL flight tomorrow (CO 1298). Shows aircraft 50, no indication where the plane is coming from. Noticed that the flight will depart from EWR gate 26A, defintely a CO gate nowhere near the UA gates. I've been tracking it on both UA and CO websites and noticed that the gate assignment showed up on the UA site this morning and on CO not until this afternoon.

There will be some confused passengers tomorrow, particularly the UA fliers who booked this flight as UA 4723 and who head toward the UA gates.

nevansm

It's now showing as a 764 for tomorrow... wow... that's odd...

tarheelnj

First day for these flights. It's already causing confusion. The flight isn't showing on either UA or CO's departure boards. The PC agent pulled it up by entering the flight number to verify the gate (which for CO 1298 EWR-STL is 24A). She also warned me that the flight won't be called as a CO flight but with the UA flight number, even though only the CO flight number is showing on my BP.

I feel bad for infrequent fliers trying to figure out what's going on.